About a whole week had passed ever since Ash welcomed Verdania into his family.
And in this short time, his family grew.
There were no airborne diseases in Ash's repertoire, so the whole forest hadn't been inducted into his family yet, but a large number of creatures in Verdant Necropolis now carried Ash's mana.
The silvery bright green aura was now faintly glowing in at least a quarter of all moving creatures in the Verdant Necropolis.
Of course, Ash didn't infect them one by one.
Verdania and Keen worked hard at first. Stabbing those creatures and injecting them with Ash's poisons and venoms.
With those initial numbers, the number of creatures that shared Ash's gift grew exponentially bigger day by day.
It would only be a matter of days before all living creatures in Verdant Necropolis had Ash's gift.
But of course, not all of them.
The trees, either the normal ones or even the carnivorous ones, weren't inducted to Ash's family.
After checking this and that with his new ability to share his gift, Ash had decided to share just 4 basic diseases for the creatures.
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Wolfsprout Paralytic (Mutated Verdant Wolf Venom)
+Ability Unlocked : Plague Endurance I (Passive)
Increased body overall endurance. Strengthen muscular structure. Enables movement under severe neural suppression.
Crimson Pulse (Bloodberry Poison)
+Ability Unlocked: Toxic Surge I (Passive)
Increased body capability to exert strength. Boost in focus and muscular power.
Hushcap Delirium (Black Mushroom Spores)
+Ability Unlocked: Plague Calm I(Passive)
Resistance against panic, mind-affecting magic, and fear effect. Relative immunity to hallucinations and charm.
Acid Gut(Giant Pitcher Plant)
+Ability Unlocked: Plague Bile I (Active)
Can spew an acidic bile. And gave passive resistance to acid.
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The creatures that had been infected by these diseases would also have the ability Ash unlocked.
So each and every one of these creatures was now stronger, tougher, almost immune to mental attacks, and could also spit out acid from their throats.
These 4 were the perfect basic diseases for the general masses.
Why didn't Ash just give them all of his abilities, you ask?
Well, Ash would certainly do it if it were possible.
All creatures that carried his mana became his family after all. There was no way any of them would betray him, since they only felt reverence for him, and Ash would also take care of them.
It's a win-win situation for both parties.
However, even cheat-like abilities like this weren't as cheat-like as Ash hoped.
Not all creatures were created equal.
Some of them were weaker, and some of them were stronger. There were even strong creatures that were somehow not too resilient.
Just like Ash when he got a new disease he hadn't conquered and added into his body, a creature needed to survive the disease first for a whole minute.
If a creature couldn't survive the first minute, then it would simply die.
Not gaining anything other than finding out the secrets of the afterlife.
If Ash infected the creatures with like 7 tier 1 diseases, then most of the creatures would not survive.
Only Verdania could handle such a thing.
Those 4 diseases were the most those creatures could handle.
And that would include Keen if not for the fact that the creature was Ash's little best friend.
By adding the slug's DNA, Keen was able to survive more diseases than the other.
And Ash was able to add one more disease to him from the basic 4. Which was twitchstep.
Something the little raven liked so much since he could go even faster than before.
Ash offered more abilities to him, like the crimson vines and even the acidthorn.
But the little guy was still a rac*** against all kinds of plants.
He would soon go on a tangent about the purity of bird-type creatures and the creepiness of sentient vines whenever Ash talked about giving the little guy a titanroot armor for his own protection.
Which, of course, Ash decided to respect the little guy's wishes and gave up on adding viney appendages to the raven.
As for Verdania, she wholeheartedly accepted all of Ash's gifts.
She was now a bona fide ruler of the forest. Not that she was a fake in the first place.
But she now could also regenerate her flesh body part, not only her vine armor with the slug's DNA.
She could also summon her own vines to control instead of relying on the nearby flora with Ash giving the vine summoning-related diseases.
She even had her vine armor upgraded to titanroot covered vines.
Making Ash pat his own chest in relief, knowing he didn't need to fight her anymore.
Her strength doubling, or even tripling,was essential for Ash.
He wanted to go back to the city soon.
He would need to make sure his kingdom, or the place where he ruled, was safe from any invaders.
With someone like Verdania guarding the palace, then Ash would only need to worry if a nuclear bomb were sent out in her direction.
Something that was unlikely to happen unless fate decided to flick his balls hard enough to make him bend over and kiss the ground.
As for Ash himself, he wasn't holding back either.
With so much free time, Ash decided to try and create his first-ever tier 3 disease.
To his surprise, combining 2 tier 2 diseases needed a dedicated physical place to do so.
Ash couldn't just rely on his codex to do all of it like before.
He set up a lab in the cave on the side of the banyan tree, made a pot using the titanroot, and grew toxic plants all around the place.
He then drew the runes the codex instructed underneath and all around the pot, and he could finally do his tier 3 splicing.
He would be going back into the city. The place where people with unknown, possibly dangerous abilities roamed everywhere.
He needed an ultimate ability, something that he knew he could trust to deal with anything that might come to him.
Even something along the level of the governor of the city.
And one thing came to mind when he thought about that.
Verdania should be stronger than the governor himself since she was the guardian of the fractured zones, the unreclaimed lands that no humans were able to conquer.
And this ability came from Ash's own experience fighting against her.
He combined the titanroot golem disease with the acidthorn. A questionable combination at first glance.
However, Ash used the Verdant Flower as the catalyst. The same flower that gave Verdania her ability to grow the vine armor and also control the flora of the forest.
The result of that was,
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Tier 3
Verdant Siege Plague (Tier 3 Disease)
A fortress-form disease granting Ash the power to root himself as a living forest. While rooted, his body blooms into a bio-organic siege biome, summoning acid-laced vine-trees around him that act as weapons, shields, and spawn points for thorns.
+Symptoms:
-Lignified Vascular Growths: Host's veins and muscles develop plant-like xylem structures, causing stiffness, reduced flexibility, and occasional snapping tendon pain during movement.
-Subdermal Thorn Nodules: Acidic thorn sacs develop under skin near joints and pressure points. Sudden movement or tension causes localized ruptures and internal burning sensations.
-Phytodermal Anchor Syndrome: Root-like tendrils erupt from the soles, spine, and limbs, embedding into any soil substrate. Victims may become temporarily immobilized without conscious effort or under stress.
+Ability Unlocked: Living Fortress Mode (Active)
Root yourself in place, transforming into the Verdant Siegeform. While active, you:
-Bloom thorned vine-trees in a wide radius around you.
-Control the vine trees as biomechanical puppets for offense or defense.
-Launch Acidthorns from yourself or the trees.
-Slowly regenerate bark armor and thorn stocks while rooted.
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It was Ash's first time seeing a tier 3 disease, and the ability was mouth-watering for him.
However, the symptoms he needed to survive first were even more mouth-watering.
In the sense of him losing his ability to move his muscles, causing him to have his mouth stuck in place, and the liquid coming out of his mouth in the form of blood.
It was an unforgettable experience.
He didn't need Viney to hold him in place this time, but hell, Ash wouldn't do it again even if he was given a million dollars to do it.
He would rather fight Verdania with missing toes rather than having to experience the Verdant Siege Plague Symptoms once more.